'Ship That Brought Me Home'
First World War Real Photo Troopship Picture Postcard Listing
In the period after the end of the First World War,
very large numbers of military men were returned to the
United States from Europe by ship. We then see a number
of types of picture postcards, featuring the ships that
were used to return the men. Some of the postcards were
issued free to the men, while others seem to be commercial
products. Some of those show a ship, and contain wording
to the effect that the 'ship brought me home' or similar.
Most of the cards that are linked here are real photo picture postcards. I suspect that they were created by enterprising photographers and sold to returning soldiers. They are almost always found unused. This is probably because they were bought and kept more as souvenirs, than as postal items to be mailed. Recently, I've seen some 'ship that brought me' postcards that, while based on photographs, are actually printed picture postcards, and not RPPC's.
If you have the bandwidth, you can view ALL of the 'Ship Brought Me Home' card images. Try: this page with all of the troopship images.
Note that soldiers were given free Jewish Welfare Board postcards, so they could notify their families that they had arrived. These could be mailed postage-free before arrival or on the dock before disembarkation. Other such postcards of this type were given out by the YMCA and the Knights of Columbus.
I know little or nothing about the photographers and publishers who created these ship photo cards. The only consistent feature of these cards is the presence of lettering added to the negative by the photographer, to the effect 'The Ship That Brought Me Home' or 'The Ship That Brought Us Home'. (The photographer had to write this backwards on the negative in ink!) Note that I have also seen some of these images as full-sized photographs, some even as panoramic photos.
In the following listing, it is noted if a JWB card is known for this ship. Some of the ships shown here are listed as having a JWB card, but I have not seen any example. Notations are similar to those for the JWB listing.
[Note that some of these cards are from my collection, and others are 'found' images from the internet, which may not be of particularly good quality.]
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Antigone |
Former: Neckar, (Seen on JWB cards) |
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Artemis |
Post-War German |
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Buford |
U. S. Army Transport |
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Canonicus |
American Cargo |
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De Kalb |
Ex-German, USS Dekalb is known, (Seen on JWB cards) |
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Eten |
Previously unknown ship; it is listed on the Navy History web pages. |
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Finland |
American |
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George Washington |
Seen on JWB cards |
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Housatonic |
Unknown Ship |
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Huron |
RPPC |
Former: Frederich der Grosse |
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Koningin der Nederlanden |
Probably Dutch (not in book) |
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Leviathan |
Postcard [from photo] |
Ex-German |
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Luckenback (Edgar F.) |
RPPC [card has different spelling of name] |
American Cargo |
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Manchuria |
RPPC [poor] |
Seen on JWB cards |
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Matsonia |
American Passenger |
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Maui |
American Passenger |
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Mercury |
Former: Barbarossa |
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Nansemond |
Postwar German Cargo |
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RMS Pannonia |
Unknown [British?] |
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--phion |
Mystery Ship [letters before 'phion' are lost] |
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Princess Matoika |
RPPC |
Seen on JWB cards |
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Rijndam |
Dutch |
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Siboney |
Not in JWB Card List |
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Susquehanna |
Former: Rheim |
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Virginian |
Not in JWB Card List |
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Zeelandia |
Dutch |
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Zeppelin |
Post-War |
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Updated March 10, 2020